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The recently published documentary One by one: John and Yoko Throw a fresh light on the stay of a legendary duo in the early 1970s in New York. NOW Time borrowed: the last decade of Lennon Arrives, potentially promising to show what followed, to the assassination of John Lennon in 1980. This is, in fact, what the film by Alan G Parker offers, but in a heavy and laborious way.
The film is considerably composed of speaking interviews, some of which have good value because the contributors have an authentic creditor of the 1960s: the writer Tariq Ali, the filmmaker Tony Palmer, the counter-culture columnist Barry Miles, the biographer of Lennon Ray Connolly. There are also several musical journalists, some in head covers in a bad opinion; And the late Andy Peebles, who interviewed Lennon for BBC Radio 1 just before his death.
But at 140 minutes, the film is surprised and editorial. Some people interviewed – among a list of almost entirely male elderly people – disclose without interruption, such as the American radio producer who moves away from the accompaniment of Elton John to the toilet, and a television journalist turning a selfish story on the staging of Lennon's death.
Despite his title from a song by Lennon, none of his appearing here. The archive clips include a good amount of Lennon who speaks (not surprisingly, the most affecting material here) and George Harrison while moving away from a karmic monologue on the way in which John's death did not really matter because he remains eternally present all around us – a moment all the more bizarre to perform in the very little spiritual context of the television cat show by Michael Aspel.
This awkward assembly tells us little new, while assuming that we are fully provoked; You may be wondering who may be the “jack” that guitarist Earl Slick continues to mention. However, if you have always wanted to know what the former personal assistant of Keith Moon could have to say about Lennon is the film for you.
★★ ☆ From
In British cinemas from May 2
